Chapter 1

 

White-hot pain wash over Jace MacAllister as the knife sliced though the thin black material of his sleeve and into the muscle of his upper arm. He struggled to focus his concentration, as he wrenched the man's arm tighter behind his back.

"Don't kill him," his partner, Cal Galloway barked, as Jace punched the soldier he was fighting in the stomach.

Color drained from the young man as Jace pulled him inches from his face and looked into his eyes. "Mate. I guess it's your lucky day," Jace said, in a thick New Zealand accent through clenched teeth.

Rearing back he planted his forehead into the man's nose. The smell of copper filled the air as blood bubbled freely, splattering the front of his shirt.

Fisting the front of the soldier's vest, Jace pulled him on to his toes, and slammed the back of his head against the tile wall with a resounding thud. Shoving him violently, Jace watched the blond man slide into a pile at his feet, and then reached for the man attacking his partner.  

He ground his fingers into the burly man’s shoulder and flipped him around to face him. Curling his fingers into a fist, he drove it into the man's face.

The soldier dropped back a few steps, and tried to regain footing, but Jace didn't wait. He pounced, solidly hitting him twice. The man groaned, tried to shake his head clear, but then teetered forward. Jace side stepped, letting him fall face first onto the floor.

"I had him," Cal said, struggling to pull himself up to his full height. Jace could see his partner was unsteady even with his back pressed against the wall.

"Like hell you did. You were getting your ass kicked." Jace reached for Cal's arm and helped him step over the unconscious men sprawled across the floor.

"I was doing fine." Cal raised his hand to wipe the flow of blood from his lip. "We wouldn't have been in this mess if you'd gotten your information right. You said this sector was deserted. Never trust a computer geek. They never get anything right." Cal stopped and looked down. "Who cut your arm?"

Jace glared at him. "Mary freaking Poppins. Who the hell do you think cut me?” He flipped a finger in the direction of the unconscious body on the floor. “That little twit had a knife in the sleeve of his coat. REM taught us to carry knives in our boot. When did they start carrying knives in their sleeves?" He pulled a handkerchief from the pocket of his pants and He grimaced as he wound it around to stop the blood seeping down his arm.

“Guess they’ve been teaching young dogs new tricks.” Cal glanced nonchalantly at him.

Switch.

The link to mind-speak was opened with the simple command. Jace felt the tingle on his forehead and then heard a buzz like bees were inside his head.

He and Cal were level-four telepaths for REM (the Regiment of Enlightened Militia). Were, past-tense. Since he and Cal decided to question what they were doing for REM, and go on the run, Jace guessed they’d now be classified as renegade agents.

Are you going to stand around all day being a Nancy boy or can we look for the file that we broke in here for? Cal's telepathic link with Jace was clear as it usually was between them.

Jace tried not to growl as he punched the numbers into his hand held PDA. A blueprint grid spun, and then popped on screen. There was an instant message from Lukaus reading, Did you get in?

Reading his thoughts Cal shot back, Tell that idiot computer programmer he almost got us killed.

Jace typed in Cal’s reaction, and then relayed the reply. Lukaus says sorry. He also says that if we keep heading down this corridor we'll end up at Jackson Lee's office. Lukaus assures us that this floor is clean of any additional REM soldiers.

Jace took a second to double check the information as he saw Cal roll his eyes. There was no heat data or movement picked up on the small grid except for the unconscious men lying on the floor. It was clear. He raised his Delta Elite handgun. Why'd you tell me not to kill that guy back there?

We promised Isabelle. I knew when he cut that chunk out of your arm you were going to fillet him like a fish if I didn't say something fast. Cal fell in beside him.

 Isabelle was Cal's wife. Not his. Jace liked Isabelle. He was happy when she'd married Cal a few weeks back, the two of them were good together.

Before they left for REM headquarters, Jace promised Isabelle, against his better judgment, that no one would be hurt. He didn’t want to disappoint her, or face Cal’s foul mood.

A month ago he and Cal had been the top soldiers in REM's dream study division. But to save their lives, Isabelle had wished they no longer existed as part of REM. Isabelle's dreams changed the outside world and no one, including REM, remembered who they were. Once she made a wish, reality changed.

Cal learned the extent of Isabelle’s powers the hard way. She thought Cal was trying to kill her, and wished him away, leaving him to spend a week in hell. From what Jace pieced together, Cal had been in a blackness of non-existence. He still wouldn’t talk about it.

 Jace experienced heavy guilt over this. Cal was his partner. Cal put his life on the line numerous times to save him. How could he have not remembered him? He should have been there to help him, but instead he’d left him there in the darkness to almost die. Until Isabelle wished Cal back, Cal never existed. 

It was still hard for Jace to wrap his head around.

He and Cal had been partners and soldiers with REM dream studies since they’d been young men. REM took them in, giving them a purpose. That was before the bastards started lying about what they were truly after… Isabelle and the other dreamers.

The dreamers could alter the world. With the dreamers captive, REM could shift leaders, change countries powers and shuffle the worlds cash flows. Anything with a simple wish from a dreamer, and things would change forever.

  Pulling in a deep breath, Jace popped the clip out of his gun in a smooth motion, inspected it, and then shoved it back, hard, to make sure it was fully engaged.

Before they had come back to REM headquarters, Jace and Cal had sworn they’d help Isabelle and any other innocent victims still out there. 

Somehow, in the last crazy month, he and Cal turned into the good guys... and REM the bad. Jace reminded himself that's why he was here breaking into REM's high security base. Otherwise, it was a insane suicide mission.

Clad in black, they moved down the hall in silent precision. Standing at over six-three in height, they mirrored each other. Light and dark. Cal was blond and fair, Jace had tanned dark skin, with a mane of tumbled black hair. Both of them represented what they were to anyone who saw them in their element… deadly.

  "Are the alarms still disabled?" Cal asked, moving ahead a few steps.

  "We probably have another five minutes before the unconscious soldiers come around." Jace jogged, punched in data on the screen, and glanced over his shoulder making sure they weren't being followed. "Lee's office is the second on the right, but what makes you think he'll give us the files?"

"We promised Isabelle we wouldn't kill anyone… we didn't say a word about intimidating the crap out of them." Cal shot him a grin. "Lee knew he hadn't seen the last of me. Isabelle has a feeling about him that he wants out. I think with REM, he's gotten in way over his head. He’s probably not the only one who feels this way. There'll be others, and I can't blame any of them. We were lucky to get out of with our skin intact. I'm sure the others think if they try and leave, REM will kill them. We know that’s right. REM's experiments are too important. Anyone's expendable if it means they can keep their goals in site and achieve success with the dreamers."

Jace shook his head in disgust. In the past, he and Cal hadn’t once questioned REM’s motives. They blindly followed like a bunch of dumb-ass lemmings. Had REM used them in past missions for their own personal gains? Had they killed innocent men? That thought ground like claws deep in Jace’s stomach.

This wasn't what he wanted. He had signed on to help people. Make the world a safer place. He’d thought REM was that place. He and Cal had been very wrong.

Taking one last glace down the deserted, long white hall, he raised his fingers counting down. Three, Two, One, then twisted the door, kicking it wide as they entered simultaneously.

 Jackson Lee's head shot up as he quickly pushed back from his desk, and started to stand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Seeing the doctors hand reach for the red button on the side of the desk, Cal slammed his fist down, crushing the doctor's fingers under his.

"Surprised to see us again?" Jace casually leaned a shoulder against the wall. Picking a paperweight off the corner of the desk, he inspected it.

"I didn't realize it was you." Recognition flashed on on Lee's face. "What the hell do the two of you want?"  The doctor was about the same age Jace and Cal, in his late twenties, but there were lines of fatigue around his eyes. 

Jace wondered what kind of lies REM told this man to bring him into their fold. Everyone had a story. Jace hoped someday he would be able to hear the doctor's.

"You know who we are?" Cal asked.  Lee didn't offer an explanation, but Jace knew it wasn't a good sign that someone from REM remembered them. If Lee did, maybe the rest of REM remembered who they were also.  

Jace pressed out to enter the doctor's thoughts, but met a strange, impenetrable wall. It wasn't the first time he and Cal had experienced this. It wasn't normal. He and Cal could telepathically read almost everyone.  It was something REM had done to alter these men's minds.

"What is that?" Jace asked, frowning. "I can't read you. It's the same with Commander Barnes." He noticed a trickle of blood seep from Lee's nose as he grabbed a white handkerchief and dabbed it away. "Better be careful what you wish for. You shouldn't try to create things you haven't been born with," Jace said unemotionally.

The doctor’s dark blue eyes flashed with anger. "Too bad you have no idea what you're talking about," Lee bit his words out. Jace caught another look in Lee’s eyes, almost as if he were lost, and couldn’t find his way home.

Jace felt the shield in the doctors mind shimmer, as if it were going to drop, but then snap back in place like steel.

"You have something we need." Jace set the paperweight down, and pushed out a chair. He settled his large frame into it, and propped his black heeled leather boots on the edge of the desk.

"Is there a reason you two have singled me out?" the doctor asked. Rolling his chair back, he laced his fingers behind his neck trying to look casual. His white lab coat fell open, exposing a blue dress shirt and jeans underneath. "REM’s already doing a good job of slowly killing me off. Are you two here to help it along and make it happen faster?"

"All we want are the files." Cal shifted a hip onto the desk.

"I know what you want." The doctor looked between them, narrowing his eyes. "I'm one of the head scientists here at REM. Don't talk to me like I'm stupid."

"We would never assume to, doctor. If you help us…" Cal started before the doctor cut him off.

"What's in it for me?"

"You get to live." Cal's eyes darkened to a shade of splintered gold.

"Live?" Lee said with a hardened laugh. "I just told you I'm a dead man anyway I look at it. I'm dead from the drugs REM’s forcing me to take. I'm also dead if REM find out I've given you any information regarding the dreamers, or if they find out the two of you are still alive. Do you like the odds? I'm not a betting man, but I think I’m pretty well screwed."

"I think you're a good man Jackson." Jace dropped his feet off the desk, and leaned forward. "You didn't sign on to hurt innocent people… just like Cal and I didn't. REM used us. Used the dreamers. You can help us stop them."

"I'm doing what I can." The doctor's steely blue eyes met Jace's. He dropped his head, and ran a hand through his dark hair. "Is Isabelle all right?"

Jace saw the muscles in Cal's body tense with the mention of her name.

"No thanks to you," Cal said coldly.

"She wished you out of here didn't she? She did it. I knew she could." The doctor turned to face Cal.

Cal's eyes were violent, protective. "We're not here to talk about Isabelle. We're here for the files."

"I'll tell you what. It's a simple request." Lee watched Cal. "You tell me she's all right, and I'll give you what you came here for."

"Go to hell." Jace read Cal, he was ready to hurt the doctor. Mortally.

Lee spoke slowly and precisely. "While she was here at the REM labs, I examined her. I was her doctor. I know she's carrying your child."

Jace tried to stop him, but was late. Cal’s fingers laced tightly around Lee’s throat, squeezing the oxygen from his windpipe.

"It's not like that. For once you have it wrong." The doctor wheezed. "I don't want her here. I hope you have her as far away from this place as possible. I need to know she's with you, because if she's here…" His words trailed. Lee's eye's remained open. "Tell me that she's with you, and the child's safe."

Lee closed his eyes as a shudder ran through his body. The black steel wall in his mind shimmered, and dropped away to color. Images and thoughts flooded Jace's mind.

The doctor was talking gently to Isabelle watching an ultra-sound image of the small beating heart of her child on the screen. Lee jotted data into her file, but Jace saw that he was leaving pieces out about the child’s abilities. Another image flashed into Jace’s mind. Lee was strapped down to a table as someone shot a hypodermic needle into his arm as he struggled, against his will.

Jace heard Lee speak in his mind. I feel both of you inside my head. I know you're reading my thoughts. I can read others that REM's forced to take Rixola, but we still can’t read true telepaths like you. If you read my thoughts, then you know I'm not going to use any information to hurt Isabelle. Don’t tell me where she is. I only want to know that she's safe and not at REM.

"She's safe," Cal said. There were deep red imprints from his fingers on Lee’s throat. Cal let his hand slide free, and drop to his side.

Lee closed his eyes and rubbed the marks. "Thank God. REM can never get that child. He holds too much power."

"They won't." A muscle twitched in Cal's cheek. "If REM ever lays a finger on my son, you'll know I'm dead, because that's what it will take for them to ever get that close."

The doctor smiled faintly. "That's what I wanted to hear you say." He leaned over, Jace tensed waiting to see if he was reaching for the alarm button. Instead Lee opened a file drawer and lifted out a manila folder. "This is a dreamer’s folder," the doctor said, sliding it across the desk.

Jace flipped it open. A dark haired woman with large brown eyes stared back from a photo. He picked through the others. She was with a young man, from the facial similarities, Jace assumed it was her brother. The second she stood with a tall blond man. Husband? Jace wondered, scanning the data for a name. "Maribelle Castillo. She's a dreamer?" he asked.

"You are holding REM's only hard copy file on her,” Lee added.

"You can't expect me to believe that there are no computer files on Castillo in REM's databases," Jace questioned.

"Hundreds. Possibly thousands, or more." The doctor stood and walked to the other side of the room. "But you are holding the only hard file."

Understanding flashed in Cal's eyes. "It's the same as Isabelle's file." He stopped and frowned. "But she took her file when we escaped from REM, and then wished REM didn't remember us. If REM doesn't remember us after Isabelle’s dream, then how do you?"

"I know I won't be able to say anything that would make you trust me. I'd rather keep our relationship that way." Lee paused before continuing. "That's why I asked about Isabelle. Right now, I'm the only one who remembers the three of you. When Isabelle dreamed, you did disappear off REM's radar. I have a file of my own on a few dreamers. It's my strategy to stay alive."

"If you have copies of these files, do others?" Jace asked.

"I told you, I'm one of REM's top scientists. I have a high level of clearance. If REM had your files, you and Galloway would be dead. That's what I am trying to avoid."

"We'd like that too.” Jace tapped the file with his finger. “This is only one file, on one dreamer. We know there are others."

"Suspecting a security breach… like the two of you are doing right now, REM moved the dreamer's hard files. This was the only file I was able to get my hands on." Lee smiled sadly. "If I'm still alive in a month, I'll try and contact you with additional files.

"If Isabelle dreams, once we have this file safe-" Cal started, but the doctor cut him off.

"Then Maribelle Castillo will no longer be in danger.” An alarm sounded on his desk. “You need to leave my office. If REM suspects any wrong doing, I won't be here to help you next time."

Jace nodded. "We weren't expecting the two guards that ambushed us in the hall."

"I'll take care of the security cameras. Have Isabelle add it to the wish in her dream. The guards won't remember it ever happened."

Jace tucked the folder inside his vest and zipped it closed. They stood, and stepped towards the door.

 "Can you telepathically read your child inside Isabelle? Can he communicate with you?" the doctor asked.

Cal turned, and watched the doctor for a long moment before answering, "Yes. He can."

The doctor closed his eyes and sank back in the chair. "Amazing. Galloway, thanks for trusting me with that information. I hope I'm around to see the two of you next time."

Jace knew the danger the doctor was in, he hoped so too.